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Our commitment to ingredient safety

Around the world, people have put their trust in P&G to provide exceptional products for nearly 180 years. We value this trust, and ensuring your safety and the safety of our products is at the heart of what we do. We also recognize that trust begins with an open dialogue so there are no questions or concerns about the products you and your families are using.

As the worldwide leader in oral care, we guarantee that our high quality ingredients are rigorously tested and meet strict safety and government regulations.

At P&G, we have approximately 700 in-house experts around the world devoted to human and environmental safety and regulatory compliance of all our products and ingredients. We are diligent in ensuring safety by continually investigating new scientific information and collaborating with scientists and regulatory agencies on new ingredient methods. We take the following steps to guarantee the safety of our products and ensure our products meet our high quality standards.

Listen: In addition to in-house expertise, we listen to the people who use our products, work with external experts and stay abreast of new scientific information and advancements.

Act: We evaluate and adjust our formulas to learnings from emerging science and consumer perceptions, or – if supported by science – continue the use of the ingredient, making sure we are transparent and provide information that educates and addresses concerns.

What’s in toothpaste?

As a consumer, it is important to know what ingredients you’re putting into your mouth and body. With P&G’s oral care products, you can brush confidently knowing the ingredients we use work together to effectively and safely clean and protect teeth, mouth and gums.

Toothpaste includes active ingredients that help prevent cavities and strengthen enamel as well as inactive ingredients to help with consistency and taste, which allow for a more enjoyable brushing experience. To help you further understand how toothpaste works, below describes the different ingredient components and their functions.

Abrasives (e.g. Silica and CaCo3), commonly called cleaning and polishing agents, make the mechanical action of brushing more effective and help to scrub away stains and polish your teeth so they look and feel clean. The abrasives found in our toothpaste help to remove things like plaque but are gentle enough on teeth that they don’t damage enamel.

Humectants (e.g. Glycerine, PEG, and Sorbitol) provide a more pleasant brushing experience as they keep the toothpaste moist, hold ingredients together and help prevent the product from drying out.

Pyrophosphates help with tartar protection. These ingredients prevent the formation of crystals that can eventually become tartar.

Aesthetic Components such as flavourings or sweeteners are included to help the toothpaste taste good and improve your overall brushing experience. Rest assured, none of our products contain sugar or any other ingredients that promote tooth decay.

Open conversations with consumers

We never compromise the safety of our consumers. You can be confident that you are using a high quality product for your oral care needs as well as your overall health and the safety of the environment. We are transparent with ingredient information on the product packaging as well as on this site. We continually evaluate new science related to our ingredients and address as needed to ensure we are providing the safest product possible. Below is more information on ingredients that are commonly asked about:

Microbeads: Microbeads are made from polyethylene, which can also be used for imparting colour in certain types of toothpastes. While microbeads are completely safe for people, and part of an enjoyable product use experience, we understand the preference for us to remove this ingredient so we have eliminated them from all of our toothpaste as of February 2016. We will complete the removal globally by 2017.

Triclosan: Triclosan is an antimicrobial ingredient that slows or stops the growth of germs such as bacteria and mildew. Although Triclosan has been used safely in consumer products for decades, we stopped producing toothpaste containing Triclosan in 2012 because we have a more advanced and effective active to ensure oral health.

Parabens: Parabens are preservatives that help keep us safe by preventing growth of bacteria or molds during the typical use of a product. They are one of the most common preservatives used in foods, beauty products, and drugs, and are permitted for use by governmental agencies across the world.Parabens have been proven safe over decades of research and are made from PHBA (para-hydrobenzoic acid), an ingredient also found naturally in numerous fruits and vegetables that are part of our everyday diet. However, we understand that some consumers question their use in select mouthwashes so we will begin removing parabens from mouthwashes immediately and will complete the removal process by February 2018.